By Himanshu Guru: Ponty Chadha no longer remains an alien name in India, thanks to the Income Tax raid on his premises yesterday. The owner of Centrestage Mall in Noida, Ponty Chadha is a liquor baron from Uttar Pradesh.

 

Ponty Chadha is the sole distributor of Liquor in Uttar Pradesh. He hogged limelight yesterday after the I-T sleuths raided his business premises and houses, from where a lot of cash and property was recovered.

 

The searches were conducted by the Delhi-based Criminal Investigation Unit of the Income Tax department. It had been alleged that Chadha was selling the liquor containing bottles in a higher price than the maximum retail price and sharing the additional revenue with the UP politicians.

 

Chadha is one of the largest liquor businessmen in North India with numerous dealerships, especially in UP. However he also owns several other ventures in the cinema, film making and multiplex sector.

 

The businessman reportedly owns more than 1,500 acres of prime land in UP of which around 350 acre lies near Sector 18, Noida's prime area.

 

Chadha is considered as a close aide of UP Chief Minister Mayawati. Although the investigating agency claimed the raids on Chadha's premises were a routine schedule of their department, it is believed that those were conducted to put pressure on Mayawati and stop her from collecting funds for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.

 

Chadha‘s main business associates in Delhi are Lalit Kapoor and Gurjeet Kochhar. The I-T sleuths have also raided their properties.

 

Chadha's businesses have allegedly grown manifold in a short span of time. His family reportedly bought all five sick sugar mills auctioned by the government. The liquor distribution in the state is also controlled by Chadha.

 

It was alleged that Ponty Chadha got all government deals at a low price because of his close proxmity to Mayawati.

 

Chadha has also expanded his business empire to real estate, sugar mills and film production. He was able to get land at very low prices from the UP government across Noida to build multiplexes, commercial establishments like Wave in Noida and Genesis School.

 

The I-T officials are also inquiring about the flow of money from UAE that was revealed in the business records of Ponty Chadha.

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